I can't recall a job in which the
tilework has not caused trouble.
One reason is obvious: you create a
skin of rigid material, with thousands
of tiny joints, over a wood
structure which swells, deflects,
twists, and warps; and then you subject
it to concentrated streams of
very hot water and steam (in a
shower) or spill various forms of
grease and abrasive materials on it
(in a kitchen), which you then
grind in with your feet.
The other reason is that homeowners
are extremely irrational
about tile. They like what they like,
and only a few skeptics among them
can be made to understand that, just
because a tile is available or appears
in a magazine photo,